JAPAN HANGS KILLER IN FIRST EXECUTION THIS YEAR

TOKYO: Japan hanged a man on Thursday, the nation’s first execution this year, and the ninth since the conservative government of Shinzo Abe came to power in December 2012. Masanori Kawasaki, 68, was convicted of stabbing three people to death — including a three-year-old girl— as they slept, after breaking into their house in Kagawa, western Japan, in 2007. “It was an extremely cruel case,” Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki told reporters. “I ordered the execution after prudent consideration,” he said.